Format · Interactive tool
Nassau payout calculator and rules.
Three matches in one round. Front 9, back 9, total 18. Optional "presses" if someone falls behind. Below: how it actually works, and a calculator that does the math for any 18-hole match.
Nassau calculator
Enter scores per hole for two players. Set your bets. Hit calculate.
What Nassau actually is
A Nassau is three side bets running in parallel during the same round. One bet on the front nine, one on the back nine, one on the total eighteen. Each one is a separate match. You can win the front and lose the back. You can lose both nines and still win the total. The payout structure is set before the round; the math is done after.
The name comes from the Nassau Country Club on Long Island, where the format was invented in 1900 to keep the friendly side of competitive golf interesting without anyone losing the farm. It survived because the math is simple and the stakes are decoupled — three small wagers feel less awkward than one big one.
How a Nassau is scored
Each of the three segments is its own match-play match, scored hole by hole. The lower score on a hole wins that hole; a tied hole is halved and counts for no one. The side that wins more holes takes the segment; an even tally pushes. Most groups play it gross (raw scores), but you can also play it net using handicaps — Friendly Wagers handles both.
- Front 9 match. Most holes won across holes 1–9. Push if even.
- Back 9 match. Same math for holes 10–18.
- Total 18 match. Most holes won across all eighteen — its own hole-by-hole tally, not the front and back results added together. A match can also close early once a side is up by more holes than remain.
You don't aggregate the three. Each pays out separately at its own stake.
Presses, in plain language
If you fall behind, you can call a press — a new side bet on the remaining holes of the current segment, at the same stake as the original. It's a way for the losing side to chase the loss without changing the original bet. Press rules vary by group; the two common defaults are:
- Manual presses. The losing side decides whether and when to press. Usually called at 2-down.
- Auto-presses. A new press automatically triggers whenever a side falls 2-down. Some groups limit it to one press per segment; others let presses stack.
Each press is its own mini-match over the remaining holes, and a press that itself falls 2-down can spawn another. A pressed segment can pay out multiple times if multiple presses fire. Friendly Wagers' defaults — which the calculator above uses — are: auto-press at 2 holes down, at most 3 presses total across all three matches, and no press may start inside a segment's final 2 holes. Set the press rule before the round to avoid arguments on hole 14.
Common Nassau variants
- $2-$2-$2. The classic low-stakes Nassau — three two-dollar bets. Friendly, no one's ego on the line.
- $5-$5-$10. Front and back at five, total at ten — weights the total higher so the round-long player wins more.
- Skins-on-Nassau. Some groups stack a per-hole Skins game on top of the three Nassau matches. Each hole has its own little wager; the segment math still runs.
Handicapping a Nassau
If players have different handicaps, the standard adjustment is USGA-aligned Course Handicap. The difference between two players' course handicaps determines how many strokes the higher handicap gets, allocated to the most difficult holes per the scorecard's handicap-index column. Friendly Wagers does this allocation automatically — you set the format, and the wager strip shows the per-hole stroke math as the round unfolds.
What Friendly Wagers handles for you
Setting up a Nassau in the app takes about ten seconds: pick "Nassau" from the game library, set the three bet amounts, optionally enable presses. From there, every score you enter updates the wager strip live — so you always know who's up on each of the three matches as the round goes on. When the last putt drops, the settlement renders: who owes whom, ready to hand off to Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, or Zelle.
Frequently asked
Can a Nassau be played with more than two players?
Yes. The most common four-player setup is best-ball Nassau (two teams of two; each team's lower score on a hole counts) or individual Nassau (every player against every other player, six head-to-head matches running in parallel). Friendly Wagers supports both.
What happens on a tied segment?
The segment pushes — no money moves on that one. Press bets on a pushed segment also push, unless the group rule says otherwise.
What if someone forgets to call a press?
If you're playing manual presses, no call means no press. The losing side ate the segment. Set the rule before the round to avoid the argument; the app respects whichever rule you configured.
Is Nassau gambling?
Like all wagering between friends, the legal status depends on your jurisdiction. In most US states, small-stakes friendly wagers between social participants in a private setting fall outside regulated gambling. Friendly Wagers is a tracking tool — the actual money exchange happens between you and your friends, on your chosen payment app. We don't hold funds, settle bets, or process payments.